SP is unique in that its rock/mtn/area/route pages are supposed to provide both good info and illustrative photos embedded in the text. What if most of the images featured on an SP page come from outside of SP, e.g. from Wikipedia? Should such a page not be thought of as a poor page, especially if there's little firsthand beta? Does it deserve a 10/10 or rather less than 6/10? (Over 70% of the votes cast on one recently posted page like that are 10s.)

For a while now I've admired your willingness to break out of the conformity of SP voting habits. Unfortunately people usually don't look very hard at the given information. I've seen a 10/10 on a less than a sentience trip report! (if I recall it was only a header) Images hosted from outside SP are okay but preferably to credit the author unless your the owner (I've done this at least once). So the important thing is to vote honestly. If you think it's the best of SP, by all means vote a 10/10. If you believe a page needs work, vote 7 or a 6 or a 1. Voting honestly enables the voting system to do it's intended job which is to sort content. Who wants to see a stolen page (info that they took with zero credits and possibly copyright) as one of the top rated of the week? Not me.

yatsek wrote:SP is unique in that its rock/mtn/area/route pages are supposed to provide both good info and illustrative photos embedded in the text. What if most of the images featured on an SP page come from outside of SP, e.g. from Wikipedia? Should such a page not be thought of as a poor page, especially if there's little firsthand beta? Does it deserve a 10/10 or rather less than 6/10? (Over 70% of the votes cast on one recently posted page like that are 10s.)

People vote mindlessly without considering context, captions, authenticity, etc. It's an old problem.

Remember, not long ago people on this site were drooling all over stolen, photoshopped pictures that were obviously so to some of us but apparently not to most since they were reaping votes, POTD/POTW status, and all kinds of laudatory comments.

So many things about it scream that it is not by the member. A quick look on Google confirms that the image is used by other sources and in other contexts. Yet people vote on this tiny picture that has no caption and which has a watermark that suggests it is by someone else. After all, if you wanted to show your own pictures but protect your copyright, wouldn't you post something large enough so that the watermark would be readable?

This is part of why I do very little voting anymore. It's not just that people vote 10 too often on pages that don't deserve it; it's that many people seem unable to discern quality and authenticity. Or they are unconcerned about even trying.

BB code mimics HTML but instead of <> it uses [] and instead of href= it uses url= for it's parameters. But remembering this assumes you know how to make an HTML link on your own. And it's more work. A simple way of thinking about it is to use the url button, place in a equal sign after the word url, place the link in there instead, and put text after the ] bracket. 3 easy steps.

Oh c'mon Bob, you don't like Burchey's photo of the day? Look at how well crafted that bird is flying with white glitter around it.

Bob Sihler wrote:This is part of why I do very little voting anymore. It's not just that people vote 10 too often on pages that don't deserve it; it's that many people seem unable to discern quality and authenticity. Or they are unconcerned about even trying.

Leaving aside the question why some of those who don't care do bother to vote 10 on anything, yes, it seems that most people are either unable to discern quality or just don't care. Exactly for this reason, the votes of those who vote more carefully can be important, especially as far as pages which aren't very good are concerned.

Josh Lewis wrote:For a while now I've admired your willingness to break out of the conformity of SP voting habits. (...) Voting honestly enables the voting system to do it's intended job which is to sort content.

One guy on whose pages I've voted (6-10) has just voted 5-6 on almost every page of mine. But half of the people respond positively (among them the person whose work prompted me to start this thread) by improving their pages instead of making fools of themselves.

Feel free to blow the whistle to us if you need bad votes removed. Revenge down votes are not taken kindly in these parts. It's rare, but I've seen revenge votes in the past. Hopefully they don't have much power behind them.

Josh Lewis wrote:Feel free to blow the whistle to us if you need bad votes removed. Revenge down votes are not taken kindly in these parts. It's rare, but I've seen revenge votes in the past. Hopefully they don't have much power behind them.

They don't have much power and actually they tell more about the voter than about the pages. Let them stay till the guy matures and deletes them himself.

The unfortunate truth is that they probably won't. Even if they do mature, they probably won't go through the effort of going back to them. Less than a year ago some freaked out about my 8/10 on one of their photos and down voted a bunch of mine (as well as pages). He sent me a PM and we worked out a deal and had them all removed. In my case he is one of those guys who keeps track of stuff.